I do not own Star Wars or any of the characters.
Emergency
Damian groaned quietly as he forced himself out of bed. His whole body ached, he had slept about a grand total of three hours, and he had to be ready for training in about fifteen minutes. He sighed, rubbing his eyes, then looked back at the others. Ahsoka, previously laying cuddled into Damian's chest, had Barriss's arm under her still, the arm wrapped around Ahsoka's middle, holding her against Barriss's side, and Barriss had Riyo cuddled into her other side. Damian sighed. It had been a long night.
He stood, getting cleaned up as quickly and quietly as he could, then got dressed, collected his lightsabers and his helmet, and left the bedroom. He walked out of the base and found Zera training with Proxy a short distance from the base, Proxy currently transformed into Ezra, who was away at Ryloth currently with the rest of the Ghost Crew. He walked over just as Zera won, Proxy deactivating his hologram.
"Good morning Master," Proxy said cheerfully, before growing concerned. "You do not look so good."
"I didn't sleep well," Damian said. "Good job Zera. Sorry I'm late."
"It's alright," Zera smiled. "So, what are we doing for training today?"
"I'm still exhausted, so I'm going to meditate for a bit to finish resting," Damian said. "So, you'll be doing the same."
Zera nodded, clipping her lightsaber to her belt before sitting down and adopting her lotus pose. Damian did the same, hovering in the air, and closed his eyes, taking a long, slow breath. Images began to play behind his eyes almost immediately, as was becoming usual when he meditated. He watched the images in silence. Sometimes the images were just flashes, sometimes it was more like a movie. Very little of it made sense. Some did, of course. His visions were getting clearer. However, he was far from being able to truly see the future for what it would be. After more than an hour, Damian finally opened his eyes and set his feet down just as Zera finished reassembling her lightsaber.
"I'm about as rested as I'm going to get," Damian said, Zera opening her eyes and nodding. "Let's spar a few rounds before moving on to Force training."
Zera nodded, but just as she stood and extended her lightsaber, R3 arrived, beeping frantically before activating a hologram of Kanan, riding on some kind of animal with Sabine.
"Kanan?" Damian asked.
"Damian!" Kanan shouted over the sound of blaster fire. "Something's gone wrong! We'll need your help after all!"
"What's happened?" Damian asked as he and Zera sprinted for the Wraith, Damian hovering R3 between them.
"We don't know!" Kanan said. "There's been no word from Hera or Ezra, and we're being chased by a troop transport and a walker!"
"Terrain?" Damian asked, dropping into the pilot's seat, Zera taking the copilot seat.
"We're in a canyon!" Kanan said.
"Drop the walls on them," Damian said. "At least enough to slow them down."
"We used our only rocket to slow them down once and it lasted seconds!" Kanan said.
"Firstly," Damian said as he left the base. "Your rocket should have gone to the walker. Secondly, you're a Jedi, Kanan. Use the Force. You're strong enough."
Kanan disconnected and R3 switched to a hologram of Ahsoka, who was just finishing pulling her shirt on.
"Damian?" Ahsoka asked. "What's going on?"
"Zera and I hare heading to Ryloth to pull Kanan's ass out of a fire," Damian said. "We'll be back soon."
Ahsoka nodded. "Be careful."
"I will," Damian promised. "I love you."
"I love you too," Ahsoka said.
R3 ended the transmission just before Damian jumped to Hyperspace.
"Will we make it in time to help?" Zera asked.
"I doubt it," Damian said. "But we'll try."
"Out of curiosity, how can R3 contact Kanan on Ryloth from our base?" Zera asked. "Or vice versa."
"Because during one raid forever ago, we got lucky enough to find portable long-range communication devices, which we upgraded all of our PROXY droids with, along with R3 and Katie," Damian said. "Now, they can basically call anyone. It's very useful."
Zera nodded. "It seems it."
Damian closed his eyes, extending his senses and reaching out, trying to see if there was anything he could sense on Ryloth. He found nothing. Finally, after far longer flying than he would like, they reached Ryloth, R3 heading for Kanan's coordinates instantly. After several minutes, they landed and found Kanan and the others just outside the canyon with the Ghost. Damian walked out of the Wraith and Kanan walked over to meet him.
"What happened?" Damian asked. "Hera and Ezra were captured. Cham's agreed to surrender in exchange for their freedom."
"They'll all be killed," Damian said.
Kanan nodded in agreement. "We were hoping you had a better plan."
"I'm sure Hera's got a plan of her own," Damian said. "But for now, brief us on everything you know."
Kanan nodded and Damian and Zera walked onto the ghost, meeting up with the others for a quick briefing. Damian noticed immediately how bad Sabine looked. Her eyes had dark circles under them from not sleeping the night before, and she all but radiated anxiety from how worried she was. Damian turned his attention to the briefing. The others didn't know much. Only what Damian already did. Kanan had dropped half a canyon wall on the walker and transport, but a second transport had arrived to deliver the ultimatum. Then, it had left.
"We've underestimated this new Imperial commander," Cham said. "He knows what he's doing."
"Don't worry," Damian said. "We'll handle him."
"You have a plan?" Kanan asked.
"Yeah," Damian nodded. "And an invisible ship."
Kanan nodded. "Yeah, that pretty much trumps everything."
"Hera's probably going to blow up the building, if I had to guess, so we'll work off of that," Damian said.
The others nodded and Damian began to explain his initial plan.
Damian watched the fireball and grinned. Show time.
"Ready Zera?" Damian asked.
"Ready!" Zera called back.
Damian flipped the Wraith, turning off the cloaking panels for the hull, but keeping it undetectable to scanners. Then, both guns opened fire on the cruiser, rapidly taking its shields down before Zera took out their engines and Damian one of their stabilizers. Then, he flipped the Wraith right-side-up again as they flew to the landing pad, mowing down the few Imperials and the walker that had survived the explosion, only the Imperial officer present managing to find enough cover to survive. Then, Damian swung the Wraith around beside the Ghost as they flew away.
"Thank you for your help," Cham said as Damian and Zera walked onto the Ghost.
"You'd have gotten away without us," Damian said. "All we did was make the new Admiral really unhappy. Who is he, anyway?"
"Grand Admiral Thrawn," Hera said. "A Chiss who collects pieces of cultures, claims to be an expert on art, and who was able to figure out who I was just by me having the Kalikori."
"He's smart," Ezra said. "He's dangerous."
"Hopefully he's dead now that Damian shot his cruiser down," Sabine said.
"I doubt it," Damian said. "He'll most likely be a thorn in our side, or worse, for a long..."
He turned, staring back in the direction of the Tann province where they'd rescued Hera and Ezra from, all of the other Jedi in the room doing the same.
"What?" Cham asked.
"Inquisitor?" Kanan asked.
"I'm not sure," Damian said, closing his eyes and trying to focus his senses on what they were feeling. "I can't tell. I don't think it's the Sith Stalker."
"There's something, at least," Ezra said.
"We should get going," Zera said. "I have a very bad feeling about this."
Damian nodded and they quickly said their goodbyes, Cham and his two companions leaving quickly while Damian and Zera returned to the Wraith, both ships taking off quickly. And still the odd feeling pursued them. It wasn't getting any closer, but it wasn't falling behind either.
"Something's wrong," Damian grumbled, activating the communicator, Kanan appearing in a hologram instantly.
"I sense it," Kanan nodded. "What do we do?"
"Lightspeed skip," Damian said.
"Alright," Kanan said. "Be careful."
"We will," Damian nodded. "You be careful too, Hera."
"I'm not crashing my ship today," Hera's voice said.
Damian ended the transmission just as Ezra began to ask what lightspeed skipping was. Damian took a deep breath, setting a hand on the Hyperspace controls, then glanced at Zera, who was clinging to her seat's restraints.
"I'm starting to think you enjoy doing this," Zera said.
"Gotta keep my skills sharp somehow," Damian chuckled, double-checking that he was buckled in before jumping for two seconds, then dropping back out, instantly swerving and beginning to bob and weave through a school of purrgils.
After several tense seconds, he managed to escape the school and jumped again, once again dropping out after several seconds. This time, they were flying though an asteroid belt when they reappeared. Damian swore, instantly beginning to avoid the giant rocks as Zera screamed, squeezing her eyes closed and beginning to hyperventilate. Damian laughed, cheering as he flew, and R3 continued to scream until they finally rose above the asteroids. Then, Damian jumped again. The next time they dropped out of hyperspace, Damian instantly cut the engines and used the Force to stop the ship, activating all of its cloaking systems. Before them was a space station. It was massive, roughly the size of a moon, but it was missing a little over half the hull, and he could see a sort of depression in it, like a satellite dish. He looked to Zera, who stared at it. They both had a terrible feeling about it. And not only because Damian saw roughly twenty star destroyers orbiting it just from where they were and not counting the back side of the station. Damian could sense something else. There was something inside of the station that pulled at him.
"We need to leave," Zera said. "We can't get in and out unnoticed."
Damian hesitated for another moment before nodding, turning the Wraith and jumping toward their base. As they flew, Damian closed his eyes, sensing back toward the station. Images filled his mind. Images of destruction, death, battles. He saw an old man. And then he saw the Emperor, his face withered and deformed, a black cloak hanging off of him and the hood pulled up. And he saw someone else. they were fighting the Emperor, but he didn't recognize them. And then, that same person was dead. He opened his eyes as they dropped out of Hyperspace.
"What do we do about the station?" Zera asked.
"We'll warn Commander Sato and Senator Organa," Damian said. "Beyond that, there's not much we can do yet. We don't have the firepower, or the forces, to take that station out, especially not with that many Star Destroyers around it."
Zera nodded. They landed and immediately left to find Ahsoka and the others in order to tell them what they had seen.
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